Paul Bunyan is a giantlumberjack in American folklore.[2][3] His exploits revolve around the tall tales of his superhuman labors,[4][5] and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in the oral tradition of North American loggers[2][3][4][5] and was later popularized by freelance writer William B. Laughead (1882–1958) in a 1916 promotional pamphlet for the Red River Lumber Company.[6] He has been the subject of various literary compositions, musical pieces, commercial works, and theatrical productions.[3] His likeness is displayed in several oversized statues across North America.[7][8]

Contents

Etymology[edit]

There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the name Paul Bunyan. Much of the commentary focuses on a Franco-Canadian origin for the name. Phonetically Bunyan is similar to the Québécois expression "bon yenne!" expressing surprise or astonishment. The English surname Bunyan derives from the same root as bunion in the Old French bugne, referring to a large lump or swelling. Several researchers have attempted to trace Paul Bunyan to the character of Bon Jean or Tit Jean of French Canadian folklore.[9]

Early references[edit]

Lumberjacks near Bellingham, Washington in c. 1910

According to Michael Edmonds in his book, Out of the Northwoods: The Many Lives of Paul Bunyan, Paul Bunyan stories circulated for at least thirty years before finding their way into print. In contrast to the lengthy narratives abundant in published material, Paul Bunyan "stories" when told in the lumbercamp bunkhouses were presented in short fragments.[5] Some of these stories include motifs from older folktales, such as absurdly severe weather and fearsome critters. Parallels in early printings support the view that at least a handful of Bunyan stories hold a common origin in folklore. The earliest recorded reference of Paul Bunyan is an uncredited 1904 editorial in the Duluth News Tribune which recounts:

His pet joke and the one with which the green horn at the camp is sure to be tried, consists of a series of imaginative tales about the year Paul Bunyan lumbered in North Dakota. The great Paul is represented as getting out countless millions of timber in the year of the "blue snow." The men's shanty in his camp covered a half section, and the mess camp was a stupendous affair. The range on which an army of cookees prepared the beans and "red horse" was so long that when the cook wanted to grease it up for the purpose of baking the wheat cakes in the morning, they strapped two large hams to his feet and started him running up and down a half mile of black glistening stove top.[10]

Each of these elements, logging the Dakotas, a giant camp, the winter of the blue snow, and stove skating, recurs in later accounts. All four anecdotes are mirrored in J.E. Rockwell's "Some Lumberjack Myths" six years later,[11] and James MacGillivray wrote on the subject of stove skating in "Round River" four years before that.[12] MacGillivray's account, somewhat extended, would reappear in The American Lumberman in 1910. The American Lumberman would follow up with a few, sporadic editorials such as "Paul Bunyan's Oxen," "In Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty," and "Chronicle of Life and Works of Mr. Paul Bunyan." But it was Rockwell's earlier story that was one of the few to allude to Paul Bunyan's Goliath-like stature and introduce his big, blue ox, prior to Laughead's commercialization of Paul Bunyan, although W.D. Harrigan did refer to a giant, albeit, pink ox in "Paul Bunyan's Oxen," circa 1914.[13] In all the articles Paul Bunyan is praised as a logger of great physical strength and unrivaled skill.

In advertising and promotion[edit]

Statues of Paul Bunyan may be compared to the Osborne bulls; both functioned first as a promotional instrument, and later as an expression of regional identity.[7]

William B. Laughead, an independent adman, was the first to utilize Paul Bunyan for commercial use. In a series of campaigns for the Red River Lumber Company, his first endeavor, a pamphlet entitled, "Introducing Mr. Paul Bunyan of Westwood, California," produced little to be desired. It was not until "Tales about Paul Bunyan, Vol. II" appeared that the campaign gained momentum.[3] Embellishing older exploits and adding some of his own, Laughead's revamped Paul Bunyan did not stay faithful to the original folktales. Among other things, Laughead gave the name "Babe" to the blue ox, increased Paul Bunyan's height to impossible proportions, and created the first pictorial representation of Bunyan.[14] This has led to significant confusion regarding the validity of Paul Bunyan as a genuine folkloric character.[2] Nevertheless, the Laughead pamphlets are regarded as one of the most popular collections, often appearing in a single, unabridged volume entitled: The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan. The Red River ad campaign not only engrained Paul Bunyan as a nationally recognized figure, but affirmed his massive marketing appeal. Throughout the better part of the century Paul Bunyan's name and image continued to be utilized in promoting various products, cities, and services. Across North America, giant statues of Paul Bunyan were erected to promote local businesses and tourism. A significant portion of these were produced from the 1960s thru the 1970s by the company International Fiberglass as part of their "Muffler Men" series of giant, fiberglass sculptures.[8]

Scholarly research[edit]

Contemporaneously with Laughead, K. Bernice Stewart, a student at the University of Wisconsin, was working to gather Paul Bunyan stories from woodsmen in the Midwest. Through a series of interviews Stewart was able to make a scholarly anthology of original anecdotes.[6] These were published as "Legends of Paul Bunyan, Lumberjack" in Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters and coauthored by her English professor, Homer A. Watt. The research relates traditional narratives, some in multiple versions, and goes on to conclude that many probably existed in some part before they were set to revolve around Bunyan as a central character. Stewart argued in her analysis that Paul Bunyan belongs to a class of traveler's tales.[4]

“Bunyan was a powerful giant, seven feet tall and with a stride of seven feet. He was famous throughout the lumbering districts for his great physical strength.”

Charles E. Brown, curator of the Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and secretary of the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, was another principal researcher who recorded early Paul Bunyan stories from lumberjacks.[15] He published these anecdotes in short pamphlet format for the use of students of folklore. Much of his research was financed through the government-funded Wisconsin Writers' Program.[5]

In 2007 Michael Edmonds, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, began a thorough reinvestigation into the Paul Bunyan tradition. Publishing his findings in Out of the Northwoods: The Many Lives of Paul Bunyan, Edmonds concluded that Paul Bunyan had origins in the oral traditions of woodsmen working in Wisconsin camps during the turn of the 20th century, but such stories were heavily embellished and popularized by commercial interests.

Children's adaptations[edit]

Running at variance to his origins in folklore, the character of Paul Bunyan has become a fixture for juvenile audiences since his debut in print. Typical among such adaptations is the further embellishment of stories pulled directly from William B. Laughead's pamphlet, and with very few elements from oral tradition adapted into them. Nearly all of the literature is presented in long narrative format, exaggerates Paul Bunyan's height to colossal proportions, and follows him from infancy to adulthood. Some of the more enduring collections of stories include Paul Bunyan by James Stevens, Paul Bunyan Swings His Axe by Dell J. McCormick, Paul Bunyan by Esther Shephard, Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox by Wallace Wadsworth, and The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan by William Laughead. In 1958 Walt Disney Studios produced Paul Bunyan as an animated short musical. The feature starred Thurl Ravenscroft, perhaps best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger for the Kellogg Company, and was nominated for Best Animated Short by the Academy Awards.

^In Harrigan's account Paul Bunyon [sic] is said to have a pink ox named, "Old Brinny."

Some commentators, such as Carleton C. Ames, Marshall Fitwick, and particularly Richard Dorson, cite Paul Bunyan as an example of "fakelore," a literary invention passed off as an older folktale. They point out that the majority of books about Paul Bunyan, especially those targeted to juvenile audiences, are comprised almost entirely of elements with no basis in folklore. However, while modern commercial writers are credited with setting Paul Bunyan on his rise to a nationally recognized figure, this ignores the historical roots of the character in logging camps and forest industries.[7]

At the same time, several authors have come forward to propose alternative origins for Paul Bunyan. D. Laurence Rogers and others have suggested a possible connection between Paul Bunyan tales and the exploits of French-Canadian lumberjack Fabian Fournier (1845 – 1875). From 1865 to 1875 Fournier worked for the H. M. Loud Company in the Grayling, Michigan area.[5] Another unverified claim, that Paul Bunyan was a soldier in the Papineau Rebellion named Paul Bon Jean, is first presented in writer James Stevens's 1925 book, Paul Bunyan,[16] and occasionally repeated in other accounts. To the right is a comparison chart between early Paul Bunyan references, the Stewart and Watt paper, and the Laughead advertisement.